In the case before us, this is the only remedy. The workings of sin, indeed, in different persons possessed of different constitutions, are very varied. It lulls one person into fatal security, it worries another with continual passions, it plagues a third with perpetual discontent, in all its influence is deadly. But looking with the eye of faith to Christ, in whatever way the disease of sin affects us, the remedy for it is certain. It is all-powerful to save-and it is so to save all who believe. No Israelite ever looked on the brazen serpent without being healed-and no sinner ever looked to the Saviour without being saved. Christ canyea! he will save to the uttermost, all who. come to him. It was their own faults if any of the serpent-stung Israelites died, it is their own fault, dear reader, if, with a provided Saviour, any sin-smitten sinner should perish. It may be objected, but we have not the power of going to the Redeemer of ourselves? Alas! it is not so much the want of power as the want of will. Only let us be willing to come and receive salvation in God's way--in the one name given under heaven by which we are to be saved, and God will help us. Yea! he is waiting to be gracious! The type and the antitype were similar in this also-that as the brazen serpent partook of the form without the poison of the fiery-flying serpents, so Christ took our nature but was "without sin," the venom in our nature. The love of Christ to man was invincible, but so also was his hatred of sin. He would not sin to save a soul. In the very nature of things it was not necessary. Sin is the soul's destroyer. The Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. Thus how vividly have we here brought before us, a most important portion of salvation unto life. It is a salvation from sin. It is plucking from the embrace of this universal destroyer. It is to snatch from this fire which is sure to (onsume. It is to rescue from these waters, in which otherwise, like Peter, we must sink. In thought, in look, in word, in work, sin destroys. Sin is the death of the body, the death of the soul, the death of both soul and body together. But Christ took to himself a human soul and a human body, both without sin, that he might destroy sin in the flesh, and redeem for himself a peculiar people zealous of good works! But, dear reader, in concluding our view of Christ on the Cross, being the antitype of the brazen serpent placed upon a pole in the wilderness, as we have intimated, there were some things between them dissimilar, as well as others strikingly analogous. These are soon recorded. And as all is instructive which places before us the value of Christ and his Cross, to them also in a few sentences we are bound to look. The brazen serpent had no power in itself to heal those that locked at it, the Son of Man has inherent power to save. In Him, in this respect, is all fulness. He is "mighty to save." And can any thing be more encouraging to the sinner to look to Christ than this? With Him there is plenteous salvation. The more he gives the less he has not to bestow. You cannot exhaust his treasure. Fear not. With him power is omnipotent, wisdom is omniscient, and love is without a limit. He is the Prince of life. He has the keys of hell and of death. Reader, place yourself in his hands, and none shall pluck you out of them. Nor is this encouragement only to a particular people-it is to all people. The brazen serpent, indeed, was for a particular people, but Christ is lifted up G for the healing of the nations. Here there is no restriction. The commission of our Lord to his Apostles was, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Nor were they to preach a gospel which had not grace in it sufficient to bless all people, or offer a remedy which had not mercy in it sufficient to heal all nations. No! God is not mocked, neither does he mock his creatures. His offers of mercy are offers of truth. The very circumstance that to us this Saviour is presented, this Son of Man lifted up, is sufficient to convince us that God would have us come unto him and live. Reader, in all fervour of love and simplicity of faith come, and "he will heal your backslidings and love you freely." Nay! he will save you for ever. For, whilst the cure which the brazen serpent conveyed was temporary, and they who were healed had, nevertheless, afterwards to yield to death, far otherwise is it with those who look to Christ. The soul, so believing, will never die. It is cured from every disease, it is sanctified from every sin, it is clothed with certain immortality, it is possessed of a treasure of everlasting felicity. As Jesus to whom the believer looks, unlike the brazen serpent which soon itself perished, is himself eternal, so those who look to the Son of Man, shall flourish in immortal youth, dwell in endless day, rejoice in the pleasures of eternity, be possessed of an everlasting kingdom, and be for ever with the Lord. O how animating, to the believer, this view of the Cross of Christ. We all love life-here we may indulge this love without sin, yea! with everlasting honor. God will be glorified in our doing so; and the creature's happiness is ever involved in the Creator's glory. Come then to this Physician, |